New Shawl

I have been a bit quiet of late. It's because I have been planning my holiday. One of the most important aspects of this planning has been deciding what knitting to take. I don't want something too heavy, too warm or too complicated. I decided that a new sock weight shawl would be perfect.

I bought some yummy yarn from Mary Clare, Auracania Ranco Multy, in colourway 309.

I love this colourway and the more I knit with it, the more I love it. The colour is warm and soft with hints of pink and purple, enhanced by the orangy reds and yellows. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it really does.

To make the most of my yarn, I chose to knit the Brandywine Shawl by Rosemary Hill, Ravelry link here. This was another pattern I purchased as part of the Help for Haiti programme running on Ravelry. $5 of my purchase price was donated to Doctors Without Borders, which I am really happy about. My $5 is part of $10,500 that has been raised by the sale of this pattern. The cause has helped increase the sales, I am sure, but even without the charity donation, I think this would still be a popular pattern.

Looking at the pattern page you can see the pattern looks good in solid, semi-solid and variegated yarns. The central triangle has no lace stitches so it shows off any patterns in the yarn, but the lace panels at the edges keep you on your toes as you knit. I made the mistake of thinking this shawl would be a piece of cake that I would easily memorise. I had hoped to be able to abandon the chart and sit on the beach tranquilly knitting away. I was mistaken. The first 4 or 5 repeats of the main lace chart were probably frogged as many times as they were knit. This was quite frustrating. However I have now reached the grand total of 10 of the 15 suggested repeats.

I don't think 15 repeats will make a shawl that is big enough for what I want. I bought two skeins of yarn and will pretty much knit until they are both gone. I like my shawls to wrap me up nice and warm. I think this shawl is designed to be a shoulder shawl rather than a full scale one. The shawl is knit from the point upwards so it isn't difficult to increase the size.

I really like the points of the side of the shawl. As I am knitting they are ruffling gently and curling like petals. I sort of don't want to block them out when I am finished, but I probably will, as the crisp points look great too.

So whilst I am enjoying this knit immensely, I don't think it is suitable for my holiday. I must go back to the drawing board. At least I have something nice to knit whilst I think.